“Learn to recognise good luck when it’s waving at you, hoping to get your attention.”

Sally Koslow

Have you ever noticed that some people are just plain lucky?

And others, well, if it’s going to happen to someone, it will happen to them!’

But what is luck?

Does ‘Lady Luck’ shine on you? Or are you ‘always the unlucky one’?

I have heard people say that they believe they may be cursed due to all the bad luck they have encountered in their life.

For a long time I have been aware of Dr Richard Wiseman’s research studies on this topic but I have only recently chosen to read his book ‘The Luck Factor’ based on his results. Up until now I understood that he had discovered that if you believe yourself to be lucky, you will be, and if you don’t, you won’t. But there’s far more to it than that. And there should be, he has spent almost a decade researching this topic! Here are the highlight:

People who consider themselves ‘lucky’ all have similar psychological traits: they tend to be more extroverted, relaxed in their approach to life, and open to new experiences.

Lucky people and unlucky people can experience exactly the same event and perceive it, experience it, and be affected (or not) by it completely differently: lucky people will see and seize opportunities, unlucky people won’t event see them.

It is entirely possible to learn to be more like a lucky person: As part of Dr Wiseman’s studies he ran ‘luck school’, trialling his findings. 80% of people who went through it believed their luck had improved. They estimated that it had improved by an average of 40%. Unlucky people got lucky, and lucky people got luckier.

Feeling lucky is linked to higher happiness and satisfaction levels: These also increased once participants had been through luck school.

Luck is not an external random force that shines on one person over another. It is a mindset, a way of behaving and perceiving the world that we can all learn. That’s not to say we’ll suddenly win the lottery, but we might feel like we have!

How do I change my luck? I can hear you shouting!

Dr Wiseman found 4 key principles that worked in the favour of ‘lucky’ people. If you want to be more lucky trying working on one of these. And if you already consider yourself luck, why not work on the one that isn’t as strong for you.

1. Maximise your chance opportunities: Be more open to new experiences, meet new people and take time to talk with them, build you connections and stay connected. If you’re an introverted type and don’t like approaching others or instigating a conversation, work on developing more open body language so people will come to you.
2. Listen to your intuition: and take steps to boost it.
3. Expect good luck to happen to you in the future: Go for your goals, persevere, don’t assume failure. My top tip would be, instead of asking the universe, ‘why me?’ ask it ‘how much luckier can I get?’
4. Turn your luck around: Look for the positives in situations, reflect on the past and how good things came out of what you thought were bad luck events, move on from negative events, and ask yourself how can I learn and grow from the past.

Taking action, working with a coach, surrounding yourself with positive people, meditating and working on your intuitive side are all positive steps you could take to be more lucky.

You know where I am if you need help with this, you could always book a free call to find out more about coaching. Good Luck!

What are your thoughts or questions? Let me know below